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xenithLast year, come November I sat down to do the 50,000 words of Nanowrimo and finished it in five days. This year, just to prove to myself it wasn't a fluke, I did it again. In the process, I learnt about how I write and I want to see if I can share some of that.
First some background, I'd done the Nano thing eight times before. I'd also written a couple of other novels and quite a lot of short stories. So I knew how my basic writing process. It went something like:
Work out what to write in the next scene, usually about 1000 words worth.
Sit down and write this.
Work out what to write in the next scene.
Sit down and write this.
My actual writing speed was fairly consistent (1000 words an hour/100 words per 3 minutes). Over the years, my daily average improved, and I was getting 3000-5000 words a day, with an occasional higher day when the story wanted to be told. I knew my limit. Those higher days drained me mentally and physically (my fingers HURT). To write 10K a day, I'd have to type from when I woke up until I went to sleep, with no substantials breaks. I might manage it one day but sustain it? No way.
So what changed?
Word wars. And chat.
In a word war, someone sets off a timer, everyone writes for that time and at the end, see who has written the most. In our regional chat room, these are run by Gamebot. There's a 5 minutes countdown and then 10 minutes (usually) to write in. Now if you want to win a word war, or get up among the winners, you have to keep typing for whole time period. If you reach the end of what you intended to write about, you have two choices, stop and lose, or make something up on the spot and keep going. I'm too competitive to stop and lose. At the end, there's a couple of minutes while competitors compare notes and then someone sets off another war.
So I was making it up as I wrote it. And my time at the computer was mostly spent putting words on the screen rather than thinking about it. (My average word count went up to 1200 words an hour, and 1400 when I pushed it. So if I did a bit in the morning and a bit at lunch, most of the 10K was an evening's work. Easy.)
Also my fingers didn't hurt, except for one morning when I was upset about other stuff so I was tense. Not sure why. Possibly because I'm more relaxed when I type.
I suppose I should add in here that I don't outline or do much forward planning. I have some characters, usually with names, and some points they have to reach during the story. (So this years, for example, I knew they had to arrive, two people had to die in a certain manner, they had to go south, and towards the end they had to get involved in "real events". That latter slowed me down a bit, checking details in books as I wrote to make sure I was writing something resembling reality.) Basically, I'm handing my plot over to imaginary people and trusting they know what they're doing.
So the short form is, I kicked up my daily writing rate by making more productive use of my time at the keyboard, by typing rather than thinking about it first
Finally the two important questions:
1. Could I keep it up for longer than 5 day?
Well, no because I run out of story. My stories tend to increase in later drafts so 50K is actually a good length for my first drafts. Beyond that, if I'm at home for the whole day writing, it does strange things to my brain. If I go out for the day, I resent the time away from the computer and I'm less focused than usual (and that's scary). So it probably wouldn't be a good idea.
2. What is the quality of the writing like?
It's first draft. My first drafts, well, they used to be mostly dialogue with enough action to string them together. Over the years they've improved somewhat, but they're not and never will be anywhere never finished. However, typing dialogue with all the line breaks and punctuation is slow so when I'm writing for speed, I tend to do more action and narrative. Also, if I really can't think of anything to write next, I start writing description. This used to be something I put in during the final drafts so having it in the earlier drafts is good. Overall, I'd say the quality of my first drafts from the last years is better than previous stuff.
As for the actual storyline, well last year's is a bit soft in the middle, with false starts and bits that need more set-up, but the character development and motivation works well. For this year, the start is a bit weak where I was writing into it, but after that it hangs together rather well. There are things that need developing and more set-up but that's the nature of a first draft. Both have relationships developments I didn't expect. Extra conflict. Little plot twists that came about because I didn't take the time to think "Nah, can't do that." My imaginary people aren't too bad at writing their stories. And I am looking forward to tackling the rewrite of this years.
So, throwing down the words faster gives me better results. But that's how my brain works. It might or might work for anyone else, and it might or might not be a good idea. Mostly I find it interesting that the process that I'd been using for many years is no longer the best one for me.
Next post, idea generation on the run. This is where it gets weird.
First some background, I'd done the Nano thing eight times before. I'd also written a couple of other novels and quite a lot of short stories. So I knew how my basic writing process. It went something like:
Work out what to write in the next scene, usually about 1000 words worth.
Sit down and write this.
Work out what to write in the next scene.
Sit down and write this.
My actual writing speed was fairly consistent (1000 words an hour/100 words per 3 minutes). Over the years, my daily average improved, and I was getting 3000-5000 words a day, with an occasional higher day when the story wanted to be told. I knew my limit. Those higher days drained me mentally and physically (my fingers HURT). To write 10K a day, I'd have to type from when I woke up until I went to sleep, with no substantials breaks. I might manage it one day but sustain it? No way.
So what changed?
Word wars. And chat.
In a word war, someone sets off a timer, everyone writes for that time and at the end, see who has written the most. In our regional chat room, these are run by Gamebot. There's a 5 minutes countdown and then 10 minutes (usually) to write in. Now if you want to win a word war, or get up among the winners, you have to keep typing for whole time period. If you reach the end of what you intended to write about, you have two choices, stop and lose, or make something up on the spot and keep going. I'm too competitive to stop and lose. At the end, there's a couple of minutes while competitors compare notes and then someone sets off another war.
So I was making it up as I wrote it. And my time at the computer was mostly spent putting words on the screen rather than thinking about it. (My average word count went up to 1200 words an hour, and 1400 when I pushed it. So if I did a bit in the morning and a bit at lunch, most of the 10K was an evening's work. Easy.)
Also my fingers didn't hurt, except for one morning when I was upset about other stuff so I was tense. Not sure why. Possibly because I'm more relaxed when I type.
I suppose I should add in here that I don't outline or do much forward planning. I have some characters, usually with names, and some points they have to reach during the story. (So this years, for example, I knew they had to arrive, two people had to die in a certain manner, they had to go south, and towards the end they had to get involved in "real events". That latter slowed me down a bit, checking details in books as I wrote to make sure I was writing something resembling reality.) Basically, I'm handing my plot over to imaginary people and trusting they know what they're doing.
So the short form is, I kicked up my daily writing rate by making more productive use of my time at the keyboard, by typing rather than thinking about it first
Finally the two important questions:
1. Could I keep it up for longer than 5 day?
Well, no because I run out of story. My stories tend to increase in later drafts so 50K is actually a good length for my first drafts. Beyond that, if I'm at home for the whole day writing, it does strange things to my brain. If I go out for the day, I resent the time away from the computer and I'm less focused than usual (and that's scary). So it probably wouldn't be a good idea.
2. What is the quality of the writing like?
It's first draft. My first drafts, well, they used to be mostly dialogue with enough action to string them together. Over the years they've improved somewhat, but they're not and never will be anywhere never finished. However, typing dialogue with all the line breaks and punctuation is slow so when I'm writing for speed, I tend to do more action and narrative. Also, if I really can't think of anything to write next, I start writing description. This used to be something I put in during the final drafts so having it in the earlier drafts is good. Overall, I'd say the quality of my first drafts from the last years is better than previous stuff.
As for the actual storyline, well last year's is a bit soft in the middle, with false starts and bits that need more set-up, but the character development and motivation works well. For this year, the start is a bit weak where I was writing into it, but after that it hangs together rather well. There are things that need developing and more set-up but that's the nature of a first draft. Both have relationships developments I didn't expect. Extra conflict. Little plot twists that came about because I didn't take the time to think "Nah, can't do that." My imaginary people aren't too bad at writing their stories. And I am looking forward to tackling the rewrite of this years.
So, throwing down the words faster gives me better results. But that's how my brain works. It might or might work for anyone else, and it might or might not be a good idea. Mostly I find it interesting that the process that I'd been using for many years is no longer the best one for me.
Next post, idea generation on the run. This is where it gets weird.
